Why do car salesmen *insist* on riding along?

My sister came up to Albany yesterday to buy a car (better prices than down by the City). As someone who’s never been overly impressed with any dealership in the area, but certainly curious as to why the staff always seems overbearing and downright annoying, I asked about her experience at the Lia Infiniti in Latham.

Was the salesperson pushy? Did he spend the whole ride talking at (not “to” or “with”) you during the test drive because, well, I really hate that. Did he wear too much cologne (another of my pet peeves, as you know)?

Turned out the sales person (a she, not a he) was excellent in all ways, even letting Cindy and my father take the car out on their own.

“She did,” I asked, incredulously knowing I’ve never been left to my own devices at any dealership in the area. In fact, once I had a salesman sit in the back seat and talk about his (distant, I believe) relation to a certain governor while poking his head through the seats and over the console to perch between me and my father. Oh how I wanted to “accidentally” stop short.

Anyway, I digress. So, hearing about Cindy’s excellent experience at the Infiniti dealership, and the fact this woman left her alone, made me wonder “Does that mean sales staff is not required to come along for the ride?”

The short answer is no, according to Dave Dariano, general manager at Metro Ford in Schenectady, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen — often.

Dariano explains the salesman (or woman) is there for several reasons.

Insurance. Most garage liability insurance says someone from the dealership should be in the car. If a potential buyer insists he or she wants to go alone, the dealership will photocopy their driver’s license and log the license plate then let them go. This is also for insurance reasons.

To answer any questions. Want to know how the cruise control works or adjust the seats? How about the radio? The sales person can answer those questions “on the fly.”

To help map out the best path for the optimum test drive. Sharp turns, hills and various speeds are important to experience before buying the car.

No matter the reason, I am far more tense and uncomfortable and lack focus when the dealer is in the car. I can’t talk freely with my dad (or whomever is with me) about the pros and cons, or the price, and I become highly aware of how I’m driving (like regressing to a 16-year-old taking her road test). In fact, in the past, I’ve chosen not to purchase a car from a certain dealership (see Mr. Governor shares my genes) because the salesperson infected the test drive.

Readers, how do you feel about a salesman or woman being in the car on the test drive? Does their presence make you more or less likely to buy?

52 Responses

When buying a new car about three years ago, I was dragged to Fucillo Hyundai by my father because of some deal they were running at the time (and because I’m a young woman, I clearly can’t make my own decisions about large purchases… but I digress…) I ended up test driving the Elantra and they let me and my father drive down Central Ave by ourselves. I liked that because there was no pressure and I felt I could judge more independently how I felt about the car without the salesman yapping away. Car wasn’t too bad, but in the end the salesguy was just way too pushy (and I HAAAAATTTTEEEE those stupid commercials), so I went with a car from Otto Mitsubishi (now Mangino I think?) in Clifton Park since they guy was far more laid back and actually cared about what I was looking for in a car! He went with me for the test drive, but only made small talk with me, and didn’t really babble on about all the features of the car. He was very easy to negotiate with and since he was so approachable and honest, I bought the car on my own (without having to have my hand held by my father!)

Basically, I think the overall experience is what matters in the purchase, and the test drive is only a small part of it!

I have never had a salesperson ride along with me when I bought a vehicle (4 so far I think)… I guess I’ve been lucky!! Now, I will be hitting that highway in the near future & am going to a dealership that many friends have gone to & look for the salesman they all have recommended – he’s not pushy & has a large return clientel!! I have bought my last 2 vehicles without anyone with me & I think I did ok but that pre-sale jittery feeling is there & I sorta wish I had someone to go with me!! Wish me luck!! :-)

I bought my Mini Cooper at Keeler Mini a few years ago, and the sales-woman was awesome — she was kind of fun and energetic.

She tagged a long on the test drive, but she hopped in the back seat [which is very tight]. I asked her a lot of questions – she knew was very honest when most salesmen are just trying to get their commission. On the test drive, my boyfriend kept telling me to floor it, but I’m shy by nature, so I didn’t want to. Then he took it out and floored it. She seemed like she was having fun.

I hate the tag-along. Makes me feel like they don’t trust me on my own. And with all their yapping, I can’t concentrate on the sounds or feel of the car. Like other people, I also use that time to discuss the experience/car with whomever I am with. I’d prefer it if they just held my license hostage and let me make this very important decision without their incessant yapping!

I hate gating a new car it’s a pain. I have no issue with writing off a dealer because sales people are incompetent. I purposely didn’t buy from orange Mazda because the sales staff was so bad. One guy was supposed to get back to me with the prices and other info and never got back to me. Another guy was supposed to get the info and well he was special like the rest of them

IMO, I don’t think someone should go out to purchase a car without someone who has a lot of experience. There are too many things to negotiate for a newbie. I’d also say starting on the internet is a must, especially if you don’t mind travelling a little to save thousands. A lot of dealers around here are just to small and/or narrow minded or both. Personally, I’ve had great luck with Fucillo’s in Amsterdam, Hadley Cadillac, closed now, and one or two others. Funny thing is though, when I returned to purchase or lease again I sometimes couldn’t make a deal… I went out of state to purchase my last car. Do a lot of research and reading…

But, jakester, You didn’t answer the question of whether you want the sales person with you or not. Do you think the salesperson counts as “someone who has a lot of experience” and therefore the best option to come along for the ride?

Oh yeah, I don’t care either way if a salesperson is with me if it’s the right person. I’d rather have a good salesperson with me than be greeted by a jerk you can’t work with when I got back. And I would buy a car form the jerk if he beat the other dealerships price. That is the bottom line.

I hate when the salesperson goes comes with me on a test drive. One topic I can truly say I would feel comfortable going head to head with someone about is cars. I don’t need the salesman to tell me about every feature the car has because I most likely already know–and if I don’t, I will ask.

I actually just bought a new car on Saturday and the salesman did come with me, but he didn’t talk much and didn’t go over much with me, which I liked, but I’d still rather be alone. Out of the 6 car dealerships I test drove cars at recently, only 2 sales people went with me on the test drive–at Lazare in Albany and at a dealer outside of the area.

My BF bought a car at Lia Infiniti last year and she let us go out on our own too. It was really nice to be able to drive around and openly discuss what we thought about the car. We also brought the car to a parking lot and combed over the car. We found a bunch of things that I feel we wouldn’t have found if we had someone there watching over us. Anyways they fixed all of these things and it was a much better experience than about 3 months later when I (at another dealership) had salesmens that were really obnoxious. One even sat in the passenger seat leaving my bf in back.

I wanted my last car to be a coupe, and I was particularly interested in a Scion or Honda Civic. I went first to look at the Scion coupe with my dad, and our Salesman offered to go with us on a test drive. I didn’t mind that he was coming along, but I did mind when he actually expected my dad to sit IN THE BACKSEAT! It wasnt my problem that he was 6’5″ and probably close to 300lbs…he insisted on going, so I insisted he sit in the backseat! Best part was when he had to climb in and out a couple times because the car needed gas on the test drive! If they want to go, they should make it as comfortable for you as possible, as well as for whomever you bring with you…They’re supposed to try to impress you, not upset you!

Go with someone posing as an S.O. Ride the loop they usually take you on with the salesman first. When you get back to the dealership, ask for a second trip around. The salesmen will usually not want to stick around for the second time.

I become incredibly nervous when driving a car with strangers in it, especially a car I am not completely familiar with. I’ve only gone on a couple test drives but basically told the salesperson that I would feel more comfortable without them because of my nervousness.

i once test drove a car at Fucillo in East Greenbush and the creepy saleperson insisted on coming along and forbid me from making any right turns, i could only make left, even if it meant cutting through gas stations. bizarre.

Not a fan of the tag-a-long either, feels like a DMV road test. I want to spend that time feeling out the car, not answering questions and feeling tense like I’m riding with grandma. I’m going to test drive the Lincoln MK S Friday with my girlfriend and will walk in the door knowing exactly who I want to speak to, based on recommendations from friends and co-workers. We heard that he talks alot, but only AFTER the drive and it’s not uncomfortable or pushy, it’s more like talking to a friend, which is what will get us to whip out the checkbook.

A good salesperson is like a good mechanic, once you find one, hold on tight!

Agree with #21. Keeler is relaxed about the ride along also. Sometimes dealers push the ride along based on location – like making a left on a busy road. I remember this sales guy cramming in the back of a Prelude I was test driving….yeah, I had my dad along, his name was on the title of the car I was trading :)

Well, in order to test drive the car, you have to be able to drive the car. I bought a standard off the lot without test driving it because I didn’t know how to drive a standard at the time. I did however, previously own the same car in an automatic so there wasn’t as much need.

The other time I test drove a car the salesman went with me, my sister and a friend. The friend was hilarious and asked about every little thing that seemed wrong. “Do we have to pay extra for the burning rubber smell?” The salesman didn’t really know how to respond to that.

I know the dealers are supposed to take at least a copy of your license if they don’t accompany you. I’ve had both experiences. A few years back, a friend and I pulled into a local dealership to test drive. The idiots there just let us go…they didn’t even verify if I had a license. We wondered about that as we cruised around the city for a while.

Awesomeguy, of course it can (although I don’t want to). Either way, that doesn’t absolve you from not reading. Oh, and calling her my friend, then following up with this most recent comment, proves you not only don’t read/pay attention, but you contradict yourself.

Hmmm, I’m thinking you may fit right in with the car dealers I’ve encountered …

I went out with the intention of either buying a brand-new or just off of lease Rav4 or CRV. The first dealer I went to did a drive-by of the new cars, and then directed me to both a used Rav4 and a used CRV.

He went on a test drive, sitting in the front and letting me drive for roughly 3 miles before we had to go back. The kicker is that I had mentioned that I’m happily child free, yet he was really big on selling me this CR-V. It was a Toyota dealer, and the car was both older than I wanted and had higher miles, so I wasn’t getting it, but then he starts to focus on the back seat DVD player as a big selling perk.

I look at the guy (who seemed exhausted, even though it was 2 PM or so) and repeat that I don’t have any children and am not planning on it in the near future. He still was big on this as a selling feature. Really? What am I going to do with that? Put my boyfriend in the back seat and drive him around while playing West Wing DVD’s.

I just bought a new car about a year ago and I remember reading this advice which is relevant to this topic!

From carbuyingtips.com:

Don’t give them your Drivers License or Social Security number!

You’ll need it to break off negotiations and leave. Many new car dealers photocopy your license before a test drive. Tell them there is no reason to. They’ll say insurance requires it. Car rental agencies don’t copy your license and you’re taking their car for a week! Some dealers copy your license “in case you rob the salesman”. Other dealers copy your license to run unauthorized credit checks on you during your test drive, still a top complaint we receive.

Make copies of your license and when they ask for your license, hand them the copy, get it back when you leave. Write on the copy the dealer may NOT run a credit check on you. Remind them the FTC fines $2500 for unauthorized credit checks. Many dealers are honest and will photocopy your license on a copier at the front desk and give it right back. But some, while you’re out on the test drive, run a credit check on you. Then they give your info to local banks, who run credit checks. Now you have 5-6 credit checks on your record. This will haunt you when you buy furniture and apply for credit. You’ll get rejected for 5-6 checks on your credit with no credit issued. Don’t give personal info until you have signed the buyer’s order and are doing dealer financing.

How can you tell if they ran a credit check on you? Online from Experian, Equifax or TrueCredit. You can run your own credit report as often as you like and it will not lower your credit score.

The times I’ve been car shopping I’ve had experiences where the dealer handed me the keys and told me to take it for a spin, where they copied my license and where they’ve rode along. Each has been fairly positive. Driving alone you are more likely to look a little more critically at the car (you can hear any noises better when no one is talking over them), but a sales person might be able to point out a couple features that you might not notice, or a particular stretch of road to demonstrate the car well.
That being said I usually have a pretty good idea about the car before I even walk on the lot, so they aren’t going to tell me much about the features, it all comes down to the way the car feels, what the price is and the attitude of the salesperson.

To all of you who do not like the person going on the drive, consider this: I have seen two very bad situations as the result of a sales person leaving it up to the driver to go on their own.

1) A brand new car driven off the lot for a WHOLE day came back with over 2000 miles on it with scratches on the hood. The salesperson had a copy of the license and a fake number from the person.

2) A brand new car was taken out for a solo drive and didn’t make it back until the salesperson went and got it from a competitors dealership where it was left. The customer had bought the car at the other dealership!!! Nice.

To all critics of the salesperson tagalong, imagine how you rationalize these two situations that could happen to anyone at anytime.

I purchased my Chevy Cobalt at Fucillo Chevy in East Greenbush and will never deal with another dealership again. The salesman Doug was FANTASTIC. He let me and my mother test drive several vehicles alone and actually encouraged our test drives. When I finally decided I had found my car he made sure everything went smoothly and called a few weeks later to see how things were going. I highly recommend that dealership!!

I am not a fan of when the car salesman rides along in the car, but I have had some experiences that were better than others. I had one instance where I was almost back to the dealership after the test drive, and I was nearing the left-turn lane which I would need to use to get back into the dealership. I was well aware of where the lane was and I was signaling, but the salesman obnoxiously told me to slow down so I could enter the lane. And no, I wasn’t going too fast. The way that he was talking to me, I felt like I was back in drivers’ ed again. Needless to say I did not buy a car at that particular dealership that day (or any other day).